Button pushing is beneath a gentleman-scholar commanding officer. On the other hand, a single worker-drone with all the controls in his hands might get his own ideas. Multiple stations with partial control, coordinated by the captain's voice, fit the organizational hierarchy best.

So much so that the military even tried to do this with aircraft cockpits, until it was obviously unworkable. The "hotshot young maverick pilot" archetype was allowed to form because they physically couldn't help it.

At least, this is the story told in The Right Stuff.